I was born with a reading list i will never finish – Maud Casey

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Broken Aro (The Broken Ones) by Jen Wylie

Open your eyes to darkness. What do you see? Does the darkness frighten you? Now imagine the darkness being the cargo hold of a slave ship. Your city has fallen. Your family is most likely dead. You don’t know anyone around you, and some of them aren’t even human. Giving up would be so easy to do, but not for Arowyn Mason. Not after being raised in a military family with seven brothers. Every great story should begin with a plan. Aro’s was to escape and to survive.

Escape comes, but at a price. As they reach the shore, Aro and the other survivors learn that freedom doesn’t mean safety. The slavers want their property back and will do anything to get it. The party uses every ounce of their brute strength, a hearty helping of cunning, and even ancient magics to keep themselves alive. Sickness, danger, and even love surprise them at every turn. Dealing with danger becomes their way of life, but none of them ever considered that nothing can be quite as dangerous as a prophecy. Running turns into another race altogether as her world falls to pieces again and again.

I really enjoyed this book. I am excited that it is a series and that the second installment, Broken Prince, has just come out.

The story follows a teenage girl, Aro and her desperate bid to survive after her city and family are destroyed. Imprisoned by slavers, she and her fellow prisoners work together to escape. However once free, the group realises that slavers aren’t the only ones that they have to watch out for. Aro’s whole world as she knows it is turned upside down as she experiences love, loss, hope and a prophecy that could change her future.

The story starts off quite quickly and it is not long before you are experiencing the intense emotions of Aro and her world collapsing. The rest of the book is quite fast paced too, however it doesn’t rush through scenes, it just keeps you turning the pages.

I liked Aro. I found her to be an incredibly brave character, even though she was very emotional. I think you also have to remember that she is only a teenager and for what she is going through she is extremely mature. She has her moments like every character does where she is annoying or you don’t like what she’s doing but that of course makes it more realistic. Her strengths and weaknesses are what made her believable.

I liked most of the other characters in the book too however there was something about one of them that didn’t sit right with me. I’m not sure why he niggled me so much, i think it’s because he was so overprotective. It made me question his motives and if it was more than just friendship, because then, without spoiling the contents of the story, that possibly creates a conflict with another character.

I appreciated the slight humour throughout that gave the intensity of the story some relief.

One thing i did find slightly annoying was the frequent use of the word “Gah” mainly said by Aro. I understand the need for an expression of her frustration etc. however it did become a little tiresome because she said it so much.

The book ended resolving enough to leave you satisfied and open ended enough to make you pine for the next book (which i certainly am!).

I definitely would recommend this to not only its intended audience of young adults but adults in general who like their fantasy and adventure.